IT is usually said that there are two general exceptions to
the doctrine of the immunity of a foreign state from suit in
the courts of another country: when the action concerns real
property located in the country of the forum, and when the
respondent state renounces the immunity. It is submitted,
however, that the latter is properly no exception to the rule,
but rather an evidence of it, inasmuch as the state must
enjoy the right in order to be able to renounce it. Hence the
case of renunciation is regarded not as an exception to the
rule of immunity, but as an additional instance of the inapplicability of the rule.

The single forthright exception to the doctrine of immunity
from suit, but one upon which there appear to be very few
decisions in point, is that of actions concerning real property
situated in the state of the forum. Even here a distinction
is usually made between "real" actions affecting the immovable property, where the jurisdiction is absolute, and those
only incidentally concerned therewith, where jurisdiction may
or may not be assumed, according to the general policy of the
courts regarding public and private acts of a foreign state.1
The Department of Cassation of the Ruling Senate in Russia
held that local courts were competent in a suit for repossession
of land taken without authority from the Russian owner by
the Italian government and used by it for a cemetery.2 The

In Germany, the actions for which the forum rei sitae is exclusively
competent are enumerated in the Code of Civil Procedure, and include
those for the determination of boundaries, partitions and claims to
possession (Zivilprozessordnung, Article 24). In Italy they are referred
to generally as "real actions," azioni reali (Codice di Procedura Civile,
Article 93).

Notes for this page

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.comPublication information:
Book title: The Position of Foreign States before National Courts:Chiefly in Continental Europe.
Contributors: Eleanor Wyllys Allen - Author.
Publisher: The Macmillan Company.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 1933.
Page number: 15.

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